Light shines the brightest in the darkness. When I was in Cuba, power outages were not uncommon. As a matter of fact, the newspaper often published a schedule with the dates and times of the power outages for each zone. For some reason, our zone always got the worst of it. We were always scheduled for night time darkness. If that was not enough, I guess the guy in charge of turning the lights back on always fell asleep or did not like us or something because we always enjoyed darkness for longer than we were supposed to. It was not fun.
There is something about the darkness that paralyzes us. Every time the lights went off, everyone in the room sat still and quiet until dad turned on a candle. That single candle made all the difference. It brought life back to the room. The light on that candle would have gone unnoticed in the middle of the day when the sun shines bright. It would have gone unseen if there were power, its light eclipsed and overpowered by the ceiling lamps and light bulbs. But in the midst of the darkness the flame on the candle always shines the brightest.
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 5:14-16)
Jesus said this in His famous "Sermon on the Mount." Jesus was talking to a very wide variety of people. People from all different walks of life had met there to listen to the words of the Master. Some of them had little to nothing in common, but they all knew Jesus. To this group of people who knew Him, Jesus said: "You are the light of the world." My question to you is the following: Do you know Jesus? If you do, then He is calling you to be light. As a matter of fact, "light" is not something Jesus is calling you to do; it is what He is calling you to be. The world needs you to be the light. What are we doing with our flame?
There are two things that make our flame invisible. The first is more light. It is hard to see a candle in the middle of the day. Hiding our light in the light is probably one of the biggest temptations that those who know Jesus face. It is easy to preach about the love of God to those who already know Him. It feels good to hide behind majestic churches where we talk about the light all the time. It is easy to get comfortable with so much light that we become afraid of darkness. We become so afraid of the darkness destroying the world God called us to save that we decide to ignore it. The crazy thing is that we have gotten so good at ignoring it that even though our lights are becoming darkness, we continue to tell ourselves that we are the light. My question is this: Can you see your light? If you look around you and all you can see are people whose lights seem to shine brighter than yours, then step out in the darkness so that others who have been consumed by darkness can see you and "give glory to your Father who is in heaven." My challenge is be a light in the darkness. The world needs to see the Jesus that you know.
The other thing we do with our light that makes it invisible is hide it. I remember one Sabbath morning I was on my way to church. It was about a 30-minute walk from my house to the church. So, like a good Christian, I was wearing my suit and tie, and I was carrying a leather Bible under my arm. Everything was going well until one of my friends from school saw me and asked me if I was going to a wedding. I was a little surprised about the fact that my friend had failed to see my leather Bible. So I explained that I was going to church. Then with disbelief on his face my friend said, "And you are a Christian?" My heart broke.
That day I came to realize that I had hidden my light so well that, even when I carried an oversized Bible in my hands, others could not believe that I was a follower of Christ. They could not believe that I knew Jesus. I had hidden my light for the sake of my comfort. I had placed my lamp under a basket because I was afraid of being rejected. I wanted to be what those around me liked me to be, not what they needed me to be. Being light is not easy, but we must keep in mind that is who we are, who we are called to be.
I want my flame to burn. Jesus promises to keep that flame alive when we hold on to Him. He promises to walk by our side as we step out of our comfort zones and let the world know of His salvation. Are you ready to take your light to the darkness? Shine!
